Democracy and Freedom in Harperland

A guest post by Pamela Mac Neil
There have been Canadian Prime Ministers I have disliked and Prime Ministers whose ideas I have disagreed with. I have never however, with any of these Prime Ministers, worried about losing our democracy and consequently our freedom. That is until Stephen Harper as our PM was given a majority government in 2011. I knew what he was capable of before he got his majority, but I never worried as long as he had minority governments. When he got his majority, I took notice and proceeded to study him closely on a daily basis. I have concluded that he is a dictator in the making and as everyone knows a dictator needs a dictatorship, either by inheriting a country as an already fully formed dictatorship or creating the country he governs into a dictatorship.

I'll say it at the outset. Canada now has an Evangelical fundamentalist Right Wing Tyrant as it's Prime Minister. By opening the government to the religious right the new religious ideology comes from the increasing presence of evangelical christians in the capital. Harper has also allowed his evangelical christian MP's to be more vocal, letting them test public response with private member bills. Another spokesman for the christian right is Timothy Bloedow, the chief aide to Saskatchewan's MP Maurice Vellacott and owner of website Christian Governance.ca who openly calls for the establishment of a Christian Theocracy. As the PM sends his blessings to prayer rallies where evangelical christians holding on tightly to Canadian flags call for a bible-based theocracy , he now signs off his throne speeches with the blessing "God Bless Canada." While Harpers U.S. Senators and congressmen christian compatriots in the right wing Republican/tea-party are openly vocal about their evangelical christian beliefs, Harper tries to keep his beliefs under wraps. There's a very good reason for this. The majority of Canadians are profoundly uneasy about people of faith taking over the reigns of government. So like everything else Harper does, he tries to practice and align his evangelical beliefs with policy in secrecy.

With his ever growing enemies list of unions, scientists, environmentalist, First Nations people, certain charities, veterans and journalists, his number one enemy, the one at the top of his list is the Canadian people, i.e. Canadians that are not of his base, but are in fact the majority. These Canadians are his biggest threat. He does not communicate either through the press or directly with the majority of Canadians because he knows that we disagree with 99% of his programs, policies and legislation. He proceeds to shove these programs, policies and his unconstitutional legislation through for the benefit of his base, giving the rest of Canadians the finger. 99% of his legislation that the Supreme Court has struck down involves a violation of Canadian rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Now why would the Prime Minister of Canada create legislation that violates or takes away the rights and freedoms of Canadians, the very people that have given him a mandate to govern? Because he can!


Harper does not have a vision, he has an agenda, an authoritarian agenda. Stephen Harper does not hold ideas, he holds beliefs. Ideas are formed by integrating the knowledge derived from the facts of reality. Beliefs are assumed truths held by dogma and faith while avoiding the facts of reality. Science represents knowledge. Harpers muzzling of scientists and defunding of scientific research that does not support his political agenda prevents government scientists from communicating to the public their scientific findings. Scientists have also complained that they have been asked to exclude or alter technical information on government documents for political reasons. The majority of scientists have said that their ability to develop programs, policy and law based on scientific evidence has been compromised because of Harpers government political interference. The need of Harpers tight fisted control of any information resulting from scientific analysis is exercised through communication specialists within the government. They have enforced unity on messaging. That messaging is political not fact base. Imagine Harpers minions, some , maybe most evangelical christians marching to Harpers tune of controlling all scientific information and dictating this to the men and woman whose lifes work depends on evidence based scientific knowledge.

The threat to our democracy and freedom does not come from an external enemy such as ISIS or any other terrorist group, but rather internally from our authoritarian Prime Minister. This is a man who is systematically dismantling and usurping our various democratic institutions. The Harper government treats Parliament with complete contempt. Parliament whose constitutional duty is to hold the government and executive accountable, but the institutions of parliament like the House of Commons,the government caucus and Senate of Canada are completely under executive control. Nothing happens in parliament without the PMO's knowledge, approval or non-approval or direct command.

Harpers control and interference has radically changed the Canadian Parliament from serving crucial checks on government power to becoming a servile entity in carrying out Harpers authoritarian agenda. Along with this is Harpers corrupt and highly incompetent behaviour when implementing many policies like the F-35's, the Senate Scandal, Veteran Affairs, The grain transportation fiasco that has cost western farmers billions, The foreign workers debacle, The ridding of the long form consensus with Stat's Canada, The China Trade deal that violates Canadians rights, omnibus legislation, the unquestioned support of Israel's slaughter of Palestinians, the income-splitting tax break that benefits only 15% of Canadians, , the permanent campaigning, the unsubstantiated attack ads, the smear campaigns, real job loss since 2008, adding $176,400,000,000 to the national debt, on and on. We will be hearing more propaganda, spin and outright lying from him as we head toward the 2015 election. The dictatorial nature of Harpers ruling involves an in depth study, but it is a study in tyranny. I have just shown the tip of the iceberg, there is so much more to be said. Harper does not just want complete control of his caucus, he wants total obedience. This is also what he wants from Canadians. In 2015 if he gets another majority, the gloves are coming off! He will both tighten and expand his power and he will do it more openly. This dogmatic, mediocre, insignificant man wants to be the dictatorial leader of Canada!! Wake up Canada!!


Pamela Mac Neil's main interest is studying how  ideas from philosophy and history shape politics, particularly Canadian politics.






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